| Sang Ho Yoo | 7 Articles |
Background
As one of harm reduction strategies, tobacco manufacturers have begun to introduce lower-yield cigarettes. Lower-yield cigarettes, so called light cigarettes, have been perceived as less hazardous by some smokers. However, there have been very few studies concerning smoking lower yield products the lead to lower nicotine absorption. We evaluated the association between brand nicotine yield of cigarettes and actual nicotine intake by measuring urinary cotinine. Methods: Four hundred sixty four male smokers aged 18 or over who participated in health check-ups in a hospital from May to October 2007 fi lled out a self-administered smoking questionnaire. Urinary cotinine concentration was measured at the time of participation. The subjects were divided into three groups (ultralight [nicotine: 0.05 mg], light [0.1 mg], and regular [> 0.1 mg] group) according to the level of brand nicotine yield of cigarettes which they smoked. Results: The median urinary cotinine concentrations of ultralight (N = 62), light (N = 216), and regular (N = 186) groups were 735.5 ng/mL (interquartile range, 320 to 1,300 ng/mL), 956.0 ng/mL (429 to 1,491 ng/mL), and 1,067.5 ng/mL (615 to 1,613 ng/mL), respectively. There was a signifi cant difference in urinary cotinine between the regular and the other groups (P = 0.015). However, multiple logistic regression analysis to evaluate the risk of being in the highest quartile of urinary cotinine concentration (≥ 1,532 ng/mL) after adjusting for possible confounding variables showed that the odds ratios were 0.84 (95% CI, 0.52 to 1.37) in the light nicotine group and 0.82 (95% CI, 0.38 to1.72) in the ultralight nicotine group compared to the regular nicotine group. Conclusion: There was no significant difference in the risk of elevated urinary cotinine concentrations in male adult smokers according to brand nicotine yield of cigarettes groups.
Background
Frailty is a wasting syndrome that presents loss of physiological function by aging, lowering of reserve capacity, and disability of body system. It is currently being considered an important issue in geriatrics. This study examined frailty level of Korean elderly in community and whether frailty can be meaningful a predictive factor for functional disability. Methods: Demographic characteristics, the number of chronic diseases and medications, cardiovascular health study (CHS) frailty index, study of osteoporotic fractures (SOF) frailty index, activities of daily living, Instrumental activities of daily living, depression, mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and fall history were examined for 302 men and women over 65 years old who visited the three community seniors welfare centers from February 2008 to June 2008. Results: There were defi nite differences of frailty status by age, educational level, marital status, monthly income, body mass index, the number of chronic diseases, the number of medications, depression, MMSE and fall history (P < 0.05), except in gender (P < 0.432). In logistic regression analysis for functional disability with frailty status defi ned by SOF frailty index, odds ratio to dependency of instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) from the healthy to the prefrail stage increased 6.84 times while from the healthy to the frail stage increased 130.87 times. These effects still increased after covariate adjustment. Also, the CHS frailty index showed the same result although there was some difference in odds ratio.Conclusion: There were meaningful correlations of frailty with functional disability when dividing Korean elderly's frailty levels into the healthy, the prefrail and the frail stages. Citations Citations to this article as recorded by
Background
Inpatient smoking cessation programs have been known to be quite effective for smoking cessation, but it was rarely conducted among Koreans. This study was to investigate the effect of inpatient smoking cessation program among Korean smokers. Methods: From March 1 to April 30, 2008, we carried out a randomized controlled trial for inpatient smoking cessation program among 70 smokers who were 18 years of age or over and admitted to a university hospital in Seoul, Korea. For the intervention group, a trained doctor conducted the systematic educational program for smoking cessation of 30 minutes to an hour. For the control group, they were advised with a 3-minute explanation for smoking cessation. We assessed the abstinence rates of study participants at 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months after discharge. Results: In 3 months after the discharge, the abstinence rate for the intervention group was 37.1% while that of the control group was 14.3%. In simple logistic regression analysis, the smokers among the intervention group were 3.5 times more likely to abstain than those in the control group. After controlling for confounding factors, the smokers among the intervention group was 11.4 times more likely to abstain than those in the control group. Conclusion: For Korean smokers, the inpatient smoking cessation program showed a higher success rate of abstinence compared to simple advice and limited counselling. Citations Citations to this article as recorded by
Background: Due to rapidly growing elderly population, there are increasing numbers of older persons with multiple chronic disorders and geriatric problems arising from polypharmacy. In this study we tried to find out the state of polypharmacy and inappropriate drug prescription and their related factors in community-dwelling elderly by review of drugs taken by older persons visiting a day health center. Methods: From April 2007 to July 2007, 80 subjects of 65 year-old or over with chronic illness who visited a elderly-wellness and health care center were randomly sampled. All of them were surveyed by structured questionnaires, medical records review, pill counts about all medications they are taking and experience of adverse drug reactions. And all the prescribed medications were reviewed or their drug prescription's appropriateness for each elderly according to Beers criteria. Data results were evaluated by frequency and correlation analyses. Results: The average counts of drugs taken by elderly with chronic disorders were 7.23, minimum 1 to maximum 27 drugs a day. Patients experienced more adverse effects significantly when more prescribed medications were taken (P=0.005), and patients with lack of information about their drugs had taken increased number of medications (P<0.001). Referred to Beers criteria, inappropriate cases of prescription were observed in 26 persons. Those drugs were NSAIDs including aspirin in 17 subjects (21%), amitrityline in 3 (4%), short-acting benzodiazepines in 3 (4%), long acting benzodiazepines in 2 (3%), and anticholinergic antihistamine in 1 (1%). Conclusion: Polypharmacy is very common in community-dwelling elderly with chronic disorders. More medications were related to more adverse drug reactions and lack of information about their drugs related to increased number of drug taking. High proportion of inappropriate drug prescriptions was observed in the elderly, which may have resulted from poor education concerning geriatric care of the medical personnels. (J Korean Acad Fam Med 2008;29:925-931)
Background: Metabolic syndrome has been introduced to increase the incidence of cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Our aim of this study was to investigate the association of fasting plasma glucose levels and metabolic syndrome in normoglycemic adults. Methods: We examined lifestyle factors, anthropometric and laboratory measurement of adults with no personal history of diabetes and normal fasting glucose from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2001. We categorized the fasting plasma glucose levels below 100 mg/dl into the quintiles and assessed the association of metabolic syndrome with increasing glycemia in normoglycemic adults. Results: Quintiles of normal fasting plasma glucose levels showed a positive trend with metabolic risk factors including abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, and obesity in normoglycemic adults (P＜0.001). Hypertriglyceridemia, low HDL-cholesterolemia, smoking, heavy drinking, and physical activity were of no significance. A multivariate model, adjusted for age, sex, smoking status, physical activity, and heavy drinking, revealed a progressively increased odds ratio of metabolic syndrome, 1.05 (95% CI, 0.76∼1.44), 1.15 (95% CI, 0.84∼1.58), 1.33 (95% CI, 0.99∼1.80), 1.55 (95% CI, 1.14∼2.10), with increasing fasting plasma glucose levels, as compared with fasting plasma glucose level of 81 mg/dl or less (P＜0.001). Conclusion: Higher fasting plasma glucose levels within the normoglycemic range may constitute a risk of metabolic syndrome in normoglycemic adults. (J Korean Acad Fam Med 2008;29:651-657)
Background
The North Korean defectors are suffering from multiple psychologic and physical health problems. However, because of their emotional maladaptation, noncooperation and suspiciousness and distrust toward others, it is difficult for South Korean doctors to build effective therapeutic relationships with them. Therefore, we made efforts to clarify the characteristics of North Korean defectors in symptom expressions and illness behaviors which would help South Korean doctors to gain rapport. Methods: We performed qualitative study with focus group interview. Three focus groups were composed of 14 North Korean defectors and group interviews were performed twice for each group. The contents of each interview were analyzed and conclusions were drawn by extracting and arranging significant findings. Results: The North Korean defectors showed psychologic symptoms such as anxiety, depression and various somatic symptoms. Among them, 'Laeng-Dol ('cold mass') and 'Jeog' mean subjective mass-feeling, such as globus sensation. And 'Tag-Gi-Byeong ('chicken heart disease')' means recurrent chest pain. These expressions reflect their anxious, depressive, and somatizing tendency. Among illness concept, 'Laeng-Byeong' ('cold related disease') means that they consider the cold weather to be the cause of various somatic symptoms. Characteristic illness behaviors include continuous complaining of recurrent symptoms, distrusting medical staffs and institutions, self-diagnosis, self- prescription, and reliance upon folk remedies. These illness behaviors were precipitated by the current breakdown of health-care system and economic crisis of the North Korea. Conclusion: South Korean doctors should be able to understand these characteristics of the North Korean defectors in order to build effective therapeutic relationship with them. (J Korean Acad Fam Med 2007;28:352-358)
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